Monday, December 27, 2010

12/27 Quickie: NFL Playoff Scenarios

Gotta love NFL playoff scenarios. The AFC is pretty clear-cut: The Patriots are winning the conference title anyway. The only open slot is the AFC South, which is the Colts for the taking with a win next week (which they'll get). No, really, does it really matter? The Pats are going to roll all the way, anyway.

The NFC is much more fascinating: The Packers, Giants and Bucs are vying for the final Wild Card spot. And the Seahawks and Rams are playing with the tantalizing chance that we'll see our first-ever sub-.500 division winner.

Then there is Philly trying to keep pace with the Bears to earn that key first-round bye (plus home-field in the Divisional Round). We'd have clarity, if not for the NFL's decision to postpone the snowed-out game until Tuesday.

(It's the NFL's first Tuesday game since 1946, a bit of novelty that will surely set viewing records on top of what was already a record-breaking season for primetime games.)

The bottom line is that the NFL is so much better off when meaningful games happen in the final week of the regular season.

More notes from NFL Week 16:

*Fantasy Football Championship Week: If you started Josh Freeman, you deserved to win. If you started LeGarrette Blount, you deserved to win. And if you started both, you deserve some sort of Fantasy GM of the Year award.

(How wild that many leagues won't be decided until late Tuesday night?)

*Only the 2010 Jets could lose -- giving up 38, no less -- yet still qualify for the playoffs in the same game.

*The Giants sure don't LOOK like a team that is worthy of making the playoffs, do they? (Hard to watch that head-to-head with the Packers and not think the Pack more worthy.)

*Tim Tebow. Allow a moment for triumphalism after Tebow led the Broncos on two 4th-quarter TD drives (both 70+ yards) for the comeback win. Plus 300 yards passing. And bringing the total number of TDs he has accounted for this season to 8 (in 2 GS + 13 other snaps).

*And yet Sam Bradford, who has the Rams on the cusp of a playoff spot, will surely run away with the Offensive Rookie of the Year award. (As he should. But can we get a little love for Tebow from the nay-sayers?)

*Tom Brady may or may not beat out Mike Vick for league MVP (he probably will), but he will finish the season with the best mark ever for TD-to-INT ratio.

*Norv Turner should be fired at the end of the season. So should Jeff Fisher. And, for blowing it at home and almost surely costing his team a playoff spot, Jack Del Rio. (That Gary Kubiak will be fired -- and likely hired in Denver the next day -- is a given, right?)

*Mike Singletary would have been on that list -- but he might not even make it to next week. Needless to say, he's as good as axed.

*You have to feel good for the Lions finishing so strong.

*Tonight: Saints at Falcons in the Monday Night Football season finale. The defending champs against the presumptive favorites to win the NFC this year. I'm going to be a sucker for my "pick-the-champs-to-repeat" thing until the bitter end. God, the Pats are going to throttle whoever the NFC offers up in the Super Bowl, aren't they? I'm steeling myself already.

More:

*Rangers get Brandon Webb: This barely qualifies as a consolation prize from losing Cliff Lee. (Did I say "barely?" I meant "doesn't.")

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.